Attainable Sustainability

Why?

Our mission is to combat Global Warming.  The global scientific community agrees that Global Warming is primarily caused by human activity during the 20th century.   Fossil fuels, plastic production, paper production, clear cutting forests, beef production, coal, energy all release massive amounts of Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxides, Methane and other natural gases into the atmosphere.  Global Warming is a huge phenomenon, reversing will take technology; industrial changes; and millions of people making daily decisions, doing many of the same things, consistently over decades to reduce and even reverse the effectiveness of Greenhouse gases.  This cannot be done by willpower.  The goal has to become a core value.

What is Sustainable Development?

The Brundtland Commission defines Sustainable Development as what meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

It divides into 3 areas: environment, economic and sociopolitical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development

What is Sustainable Living?

Existing in a way that supports Sustainable Development is Sustainable Living.  Every action, decision that affects the environment, the economy, your community and governments.  It can be as simple an action as changing a light bulb, or as complicated as organizing a mass movement.

Sustainable Living is not just recycling cans or riding the bus.  It is not sustainable if you recycle a can and then drive your Hummer 35 miles to work.  It won’t work if one action cancels another out.  Everything you do has to be sustainable.

What happens before and after matters too.  Driving a Hybrid may save gas, but battery production and disposal causes more harm to the environment than the gas saved.  But where the battery comes from and where it goes doesn’t involve you.  You buy the Hybrid and then trade it in for something else.

You have to care even when the repercussions of your actions are out of sight and mind.

Sustainable Living is not easy.  And in order to be sustainable, it has to be sustained.

That’s where the Living comes in.  Sustainability has to become the core part of living from inside out – from your own soul, to your family, work, art, community and then the world.  The ideal is that by living, we enhance the quality of our lives and the quality of life for the next generation.  We enrich our planet, and our lives for the purpose of making our children even richer in life.  How do we reverse the cycle of poverty and scarcity, or unjust distribution of wealth?

Sustainable Living folows these Principles:

• It starts with your inner value or soul.  Your outlook on life, the choices you make, must be in the interest of nurturing the good in you.
• It radiates outward to your family, your coworkers, your community, the outside world, and then this planet.
• Live in such a way to leave more for those who follow, whether in quality or quantity.
• Follow these principles in scarcity and in plenty.
• Abandon hidebound beliefs and coercive institutions that reverse sustainability.
• Solutions close to the center are simple, pragmatic, even mundane, like carpooling and LED home lighting.  Solutions far from the center are grand and ambitious, like reversing worldwide population growth or living in space.
• Both types of solutions must be part of every life plan.
• Reduce global population.
• Consume less.  Produce more.

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